HALLOWEEN IN THE W.C.

Ahh, autumn! Time for the harvest, football, and Halloween. I'm sure most of us have fond memories of trick-or-treating, eating waaay too much candy, carving jack-o-lanterns, listening to scary stories or songs, and watching bad horror movies.

But...it used to be simple. The decorations in the yard were pretty much limited to one jack-o-lantern per child in the household. Now, as I travel about the highways and biways of the W.C. and surrounding environs, I see the following: Inflatable spiders, inflatable Frankenstiens, scarecrows, gravestones with monsters coming out of the ground. Yesterday I saw an entire yard that was transformed into a cemetary complete with skeletons rising from their graves.

Is this too much emphasis on imagery and materialistic stuff? A Muslim, or religious Christian may say 'yes.' Yet another distraction of our American culture that is already filled with enough distractions as it is. And besides-as I have seen for myself, inflatable monsters and spiders just make a front yard look like a mess after a wind storm.

And also, having just spent some time with Baby Snooks himself-he'd probably look adorable dressed as a bunny rabbit or a little pumkin or something. It would be difficult for him not to want to go trick-or-treat with all of the societal pressure to do so. I guess there is a fine line between participating, and placing real importance on Halloween. Especially-Halloween during Ramadan-now THERES a dichotomy for ya. The American festival of childhood gluttony meets the Islamic month of fasting and restraint.

But, if we were allowed to trick-or-treat after sunset, like in the old days-it might just work out. Luckily, I'm only Baby Snooks uncle, and I don't have to worry about it.